Maybe because I am a poor village girl, my idea and attitude towards money is different or was different until I read these four books that changed how I look at it.
I used to be a conformist. I never did things that I truly wanted. I always looked around me, check what others are doing and patterned my actions and decisions to people around me whom I thought were cool, looked good and were doing well in life.
Read also:5 Easy Steps To A Healthy Self-Image
My only aim was to be a good daughter and a good person that meant saying yes to my parents and to our elders because they know what is best and seen so much and understood a lot about life.
Also it my country, there’s an unwritten law that elders are always right and explaining how one truly felt meant disrespecting them. We always vowed and let nasty emotions eat our hearts.
I was doing things because people around me were doing them and not because I truly want them. Same with what I needed to buy.
At this point whenever I feel anxious about the flow of money, my thoughts couldn’t stop drifting to the number of shoes and dresses I had and expensive co*cktails I drank to divert my attention and fill my time with something and activities that really didn’t bring me to meet my higher self.
These are all in the past now and I have experiences, failures, heartbreaks and most especially, books that serve as my guide to ease the journey to living a wholehearted life.
These are the books that changed how I look at money and business.
The $100 Startup
I was under the impression that income from a job would help me change my and my family’s quality of life. I thought putting up a business needs tons of capital and investment.
In this book, the author, in preparation to write for this book looked for 1500 people who built their businesses from very little investment as $100 or even less.
He narrowed it down and chose 50 really intriguing cases of their journey to make the business fly.
In most of the cases, even even people who didn’t have special skills have found out ways to monetize their passions and found a way to recreate their lives and have more fulfilment and freedom.
50 case studies gave me ideas of what I could also do given that time, most of my money went to my family back home.
I took breaks in between reading and asked myself questions like Where am I really good at? What comes naturally to me? What can work? What resources do I have now that I can use? Will I be able to use the internet? How much free time do I have? How soon can I start? How soon will I earn money? What do I need to learn?
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How to Blog for Profit
After reading The $100 Startup and answering my own questions, three things surfaced: first, I am an over-thinker who loves writing, second, I love taking photos and third, I spend most of my free time on the internet.
This lead me to googling “How will I make money writing?” and I was surprised how much answers were in front of me that up to this day, I still haven’t been even able to apply everything that I have found.
I discovered that I could work as a ghost and freelance writer but I want all my articles to remain mine so I pushed it aside.
Another result is blogging so even if I already had a history of failing in blogging, I gave it another shot and that time, I was willing to do something I didn’t.
Learn. I emptied the search bar and started looking for books that would teach me how I could have a blog that would give me an income. I was up for another overwhelm. There were incredible number of options but this one stood out because the synopsis gave me warm feeling.
I logged in to my Amazon account and ordered right away plus another blogging book that didn’t make so much sense.
Not even halfway the book, I purchased this domain.
I wrote and wrote, read and read and learn and learn and after one year before I started receiving a steady flow of income.
I learned how to monetize my depression and my greatest struggles.
Read also:How Journaling Cured my Depression
If you want to launch a blog, need help getting started or a little nudge, you can check the other blog that I built for blogging and money alone for more information. Or if you want to speed up the setting up process, you can check the services I offer here.
The More of Less
Practising minimalism is one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life and I have my depression to thank for.
All the material possessions I held dear to my life amounted to nothing when my life lost meaning, direction and depth and I badly needed to understand what’s happening to me.
Read also: 10 Serious Signs You are on the Wrong Path in Life
My decision not to go back to the corporate world again made money quite scarce especially that I needed to send back home but the pages of this book showed me a different way on how to look at what I had, what I was doing and why I was doing it.
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The pages of this book felt like a warm hug and a reassurance that I was not missing out by not wanting to become a victim of consumerism again.
I have been living a minimalist since 2017. I extended the practice not just to the material things that I keep and buy but also the relationships I allow in my life and the distractions I welcome.
Read also:16 Things I No Longer Buy Since Becoming a Minimalist
It wasn’t easy but once it becomes a habit, it will start feeling as normal as breathing.
I crave for that feeling of lightness in knowing that buying decisions or any life decision I must make is easier after truly considering what is a basic necessity and what isn’t.
The only thing that I didn’t stop buying is books for they are not an expense to me. They are investments. This book taught me to ask, how can I make my life simpler yet more meaningful?
Read also:10 Books That Dramatically Changed My Life.
Money
“Money is a game.”
This book crashed every belief that I had for money.
It might say simple steps but I really can’t decide if it’s simple because I was left panting with all the information this book gave me.
One line that caught my attention and wouldn’t leave my mind is “ how much money do I really need to feel secured?”
Now I don’t to be a spoiler by giving out every line inside.
Despite all the consequences I am paying for my poor life choices, I am learning that I can be capable of “creating my own wealth” instead of thinking that I am a “victim of my circ*mstances.”
Read also: 8 Life Lessons Hitting Rock Bottom has Taught Me
The seven steps to financial freedom is quite overwhelming and I need a little more time to digest every bits and pieces of information that I consumed but I know that I will look at money and business the same way again.
What books changed your mindset about money? I’d love to read those books too. Leave them in the comments below. Thank you.
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Mind, Body, and Soul: The Divine Balance
